In case you did miss it, here’s the story of the origins of the “Ching Chong Ding Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.” (includes video)
Tag: 03.28.14
Helgi Tomasson: Three Decades At San Francisco Ballet
“Tomasson’s created more than 40 ballets, most of them for his own company. Simultaneously, he’s taken San Francisco Ballet to global renown. Tomasson marked 29 years at the helm by signing a contract earlier this month for another five years as artistic director.”
Yes, Book Editors Edit Books (They’re Not Just Business People)
HarperCollins editor Barry Harbaugh: “The editorial staffs of New York houses are not the faceless lemmings that a certain retail giant with a vested stake in self-publishing would have us be. And though it would appear to outsiders that the health of our careers depends solely on measurements of quantity (of the books that we acquire and the units sold), we’re not numbers-obsessed automatons. Editors edit. A lot.”
A Reality TV Show Starring Birds (Real Ones)
This is not an April Fools’ joke. It is another of Norway’s experiments with “slow TV” – starring “a short tempered nuthatch, a blue tit with the memory of a gold fish, a happy-go-lucky great tit, and a depressed bullfinch.” The title: Piip-Show.
A Big New UK Theatre Subsidy! Great! Now What (And Who) Should Qualify?
Starting in September, producers of touring shows in the UK will be able to claim up to a 25% tax rebate, with other productions receiving 20%. So what exactly will be the definition of what qualifies as touring shows and productions?
Prospect Is Out With Its Annual List Of The World’s Top Thinkers (and There’s Been A Shakeup)
“Twenty-two of the new list (44%) are women, a considerable advance on the blokeish 2013 squad. How has that been achieved? One factor is a marked increase in the number of philosophers, up this time from four to 14 (28%) to improbably make philosophy the second best-represented subject behind economics, which boasts a spectacular proportion.”
Portland’s Theatres Band Together To Present All Of Shakespeare In Two Years
“I think it’s going to be a fun experiment for the Portland arts community which is very diverse but often falls into the trap that everyone’s competing for the same dollars, the few art dollars out there that are still left,” says organizer Peter Platt. “Instead there’s strength in numbers. You can come together, collaborate, create festivals and programming that shares expertise, talent and overhead.”
If You Wonder Where All The Victorian Fairies Got To, Blame The Usual Suspect
“Fairies were abundant in print until 1926, whereupon they suffered what population ecology types would call an overshoot, followed by a die-off. In other words, we crested ‘peak fairy.'” Then we created cars.
Now We’re Going To Print Our Own Houses
“With 3D-printing, there is zero waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled. This could revolutionise how we make our cities.”
Is It Time To End The Story Ballet?
“Let’s do a brand-new story that works well for dance, and commission new music, new sets. Have it be a big production. Hire someone to write the libretto. Put a lot of care into it. Even take the time to workshop a lot of it. I’d take an approach that plays or Broadway musicals take, where there can be many phases of development for it, so it’s not rushed.”